A year of design and permitting work on the infrastructure and initial phases of the project will begin after the New Year.

The massive mixed-use Quay Sarasota development received final city approval Monday night after years of planning.

The potential $1 billion project will combine commercial, residential and office buildings on the long-vacant property and transform the downtown waterfront over the next decade.

The approval sets into motion a series of initial design and permitting efforts for water, sewer and road infrastructure that will serve the overall project, and for the first residential building and waterfront public space on the property.

The new development agreement also requires GreenPointe Communities to begin permitting with the Florida Department of Transportation within the month on the long-planned two-lane roundabout at U.S. 41 and Fruitville Road that will serve as the main gateway to the bayfront project.

Those efforts will take most of next year. On-site construction of infrastructure will begin in late 2017 or early 2018, said Rick Harcrow, GreenPointe’s regional president.

The general development agreement approved Monday provides an overall layout for the site and allows for up to 695 condominiums, 175 hotel rooms, 189,050 square feet of retail space and nearly 39,000 square feet of office space in buildings up to 18 stories high. Plans call for the property to be developed in nine “blocks” that would be reviewed and considered at public hearings as each is individually designed.

The southwestern corner and southern edge of the property are likely to be the first “blocks” developed with around 100 condominiums overlooking the bay alongside retail and office space, said attorney Charlie Bailey, who is working with the developers.

A planned “waterfront district” with a public plaza, shops and restaurants is likely to follow either around the same time or slightly after, Bailey said. The rest of the development will bloom around the site in what is expected to be seven years of active construction, he added.

Before new vertical development on the site begins, however, the plan requires the restoration of the historic Belle Haven Hotel at the center of the property and construction of several multiuse recreational trails along U.S. 41 and the waterfront.

The roundabout construction also must begin within three years at the most, or sooner depending on how quickly FDOT procurement or residential construction on the site starts, according to the agreement.

Some who had raised questions about public access to the property, including planning board member Patrick Gannon and bicycle advocate Mike Lasche, each praised Bailey and GreenPointe for incorporating their concerns into stipulations that trails be available over the years construction occurs. Both Gannon and Lasche further encouraged GreenPointe on Monday night to consider even more connectivity to the north and south for those trails.

While most city leaders praised the project, Commissioner Susan Chapman cast the lone vote against it, calling it “an extreme amount of density and intensity.”

The site’s previous “Irish-American project has a lot of problems with it, but it’s only three 18-story high rises,” Chapman said. “What we’re talking about is the potential for nine 18-story high rises, which has a huge impact on our city. Even though we’ve been assured it’s not going to happen that way, there is no assurance it’s going to.”

The general development agreement method used for the Quay site is a first-of-its-kind process for the commission that allowed the board to consider a “general plan” without the typically required specific site plan. City planners and City Attorney Robert Fournier have said that for large projects that will be built in phases, specific site plans at the beginning can be impractical. The new process allows the City Commission to consider site plans as each phase or “block” is planned and begins.

The commission formally approved that properties in the downtown zoning area larger than seven acres be allowed to design projects through the general development agreement process. The decision, for example, will allow the eventual developer of the Ringling Shopping Center to pursue the new arrangement, Fournier said.

Herald Tribune, December 5, 2016